Thackley entertain Worksop Town at the Mitton Group Stadium at Dennyfield on Tuesday night in a fixture originally scheduled for October but was rearranged due to the Tiger’s involvement in the FA Vase. Worksop have had more going on off the field than on it recently, acquiring a new Managing Director and subsequently have lost the services of their manager Ryan Hindley. Craig Spink has taken over the role on a temporary basis. On the field, the Tigers are rather surprisingly struggling for a club of their size, currently occupying a mid table position with thirty six points from twenty five games. Their last league win came back in October, since then they have consistently picked up points drawing six of their last nine league games. On Saturday they salvaged a point at our local rivals Albion Sports with a very late Charlie Baird goal.

Worksop were relegated to the NCEL in 2014 and so the two teams have met on six previous occasions since then. The Tigers won the first four of these encounters but last season Thackley took four points from them, the corresponding fixture at Dennyfield finishing all square, Connor Brunt’s last minute penalty cancelling out Chris Wademan’s goal. At Sandy Lane, in the season’s final game, goals from Luke Robinson and Mike Garrod gave Thackley their only victory against the Tigers.

Like Worksop, Thackley have lost their manager recently and the new regime has just one game under their belt, the draw against Penistone over a week ago. Saturday’s postponement against Liversedge was very disappointing but Thackley managed to get some game time in with a quickly arranged friendly against Steeton. Results in other matches over the weekend went Thackley’s way with all the clubs below and just above them not adding any points to their tally. Thackley are in a very precarious position and are in desperate need of points. The effort put in by the team in the last game against Penistone certainly signalled better times were ahead. If the Dennyboys can maintain and improve on that performance then a victory is possible.